Sully's Reverie
by SusieCues
Summary: A Gloucester man going to his watery grave, tries making peace with himself.
1. Chapter 1

"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters..." Psalms 107:23

 **44 N, 56.4 W - The Andrea Gail's last known coordinates..**

* * *

The Andrea Gail was taking on water like a kid's bathtub play boat when a child holds the toy under. The final wave, towering a staggering fifty feet, or more, had done her in. She hurtled down to the sea's black, roiling depths, a one way trip. The ship and what was left of her crew, about to be lost, never to be seen nor heard from again.

Sobbing like a baby, Sully, with his back molded to the hold of the ship, stared into death's merciless face. Crippling sadness battered him as he faced the inevitable. His end was near after having lived through a summer, barely surviving financially. A roustabout in need of cash, Sully was always searching. His was a never-ending story of trying to find a good job that would make him some real money instead of working for peanuts. He was a man who spent money no sooner had he earned it. Repairing fishing nets, filling in as a handyman at various spots around town, working as a part-time car mechanic in the shop of a friend had paid chicken feed. It had all been grunt work.

But this, this payback was oh, so unfair! In the end, he was just another sucker never catching a break. Instead of that 'slammer,' he was getting slammed, about to become one of so many millions lost at sea.

Relentlessly, seawater swirled higher and higher, terrifying him. There'd be no proper grave for him. Who'd mourn him? If he had it to do over again, he'd know better. There would have been no sailing out of Gloucester Harbor for this landlubber, who should've stayed ashore where he belonged.

He'd be alive, but now...his life would soon be over.

There'd been another reason why he'd chosen to go with Billy. Had it been he'd wanted to get under Murph's skin? Rub Dale Murphy's nose in Debra's leaving her husband for Sully? Deb and Scully, the on-again, off-again subject of town gossip. Murph had constantly seen red, never missing an opportunity to call Sully out on it. Yes, getting Murph's goat had played a part in Sully's motivation for coming aboard the Andrea Gail once he'd learned Murph had kept his site.

Billy hadn't told him Murph's business; Bugsy had spilled the beans.

No lover of the sea, Sully hated the smell of fish; drove him up the wall. A 'slammer' meant there'd be plenty of money, enough to last him at least into December. On this charter, he'd learned even more about the tough, dangerous work that sword fishing entailed. It was no work for wimps.

Dreading the inevitable, Sully glanced above where he stood, shuddering. No more did the shrieking wind howl. There was only the unrelenting sound of rushing water, hastening to snuff out his life. He was in a box, up to his nostrils in oily, fishy water. Suffocation was moments away.

The temptest-tossed waters of the Atlantic mirrored Sully's tempestuous life. His briny eyes, filled with tears rounded in horror as death closed in. His final moments were upon him and he reflected a last time. He'd never been the pride of his family. He'd left home young; had never looked back. Had never wanted a family of his own, preferring to be a man who lived life on his own terms.

Again, he thought how cruel this was! They'd made a killing in the Flemish Cap, after they'd fished the life out of the Grand Banks. Billy had wanted that 'slammer' so much, he could taste it. Their dreams ruined, they only had untimely deaths to show for all they'd gone through.

Water inched higher, ever higher. His last thoughts clouded. Oddly, he recalled the day he and Murph had made peace on deck. How Murph had called him, "tough guy." Sully had given the beefy, stubborn man, with a heart of gold,' a goofy smile. It had been his own brand of burying the hatchet, and not in Murph's back. What if they might have made peace earlier in the turnaround? That would have made life aboard the Andrea Gale a lot easier for themselves and the rest of the crew. Billy would have rejoiced since both men were his good friends. Those times he'd had to get in-between them before they killed each other, he'd hated it.

Time, running out quickly for him, Sully pondered. How many of them were still alive? Was Murphy dead? Alfred Pierre? Bugsy? Bobby?

Had Billy already drowned? Sully's own fateful words came back to haunt him. His gutsy sentiments meant nothing now...

" _We're Gloucester men_..."

Which had implied what? They were indestructible? Tougher than nails, and stronger than an angry sea? That it was unthinkable their names should ever be added to that infamous wall of pain in the Fishermen's Memorial museum in town, where the _Man At The Wheel_ reminded visitors of all those unfortunate sailors swallowed up by monstrous tides?

He'd crumpled up the weather report Billy had handed him on deck, had tossed it over the side. One and all, they'd basked in the bright, warm sunshine that day before they'd sailed into the 'belly of the monster' not long after.

Did the _perfect storm_ care where they'd come from? The 'storm of the century,' a meteorologist's wonder of wonders, was this sailor's nightmare.

His thoughts tangled...he couldn't die like this, not like this. Many, so many, fishermen had died just like this. He wasn't a true fisherman, not like they once had been. No. He was just some cocky landlubber. He wasn't even much of a swimmer, born and raised in this part of Massachusetts where the fishing industry thrived.

He was a big-talking loser, his future canceled, whimpering in the dark in the wrong place, at the worst time possible.

His unborn child would never know his, _or her_ father. At the Crow's Nest, Debra had called. She didn't know why she hadn't told him at her house, perhaps dreading his reaction. But, she'd made the choice and had told him over the phone, right before he shipped out. She'd had a bad feeling that she might never get the chance to if she hadn't told him then. She was pregnant. The baby was Scully's. Dale Jr., her and Murph's beloved son, was going to be a stepbrother.

Feeling gut-punched, Sully broke down, thinking what he'd never have. Deb would likely show the kid a photo. That would be that. The child would never know his dad's pussycat smile, his easy laughter, his quirky sense of humor. Or, how much he loved his _Star Wars_.

 _The Force isn't with me today_ , he sadly thought, sighing his last few breaths.

From the moment she'd told him, Sully wanted their baby. He would have made a grand dad, the grandest for...

 _His baby,_ _his legacy_...

"Debra, Debra..." he sobbed, wincing, the end so near. "I really loved you. I was crazy, like you said, but I never lied. You are the woman for me." She had never minded his shortcomings, as he'd brazenly told Murph. Debra saw him for what he was, and what he told her he would be, for her...a man deeply in love with her.

Frenzied, Sully gasped. Icy, inky, water rushed in, smothering him like a blanket. Only a few seconds remained before the ocean killed him. He stared into black nothingness, then slammed his eyes shut. Deprived of air, he breathed in the salty Atlantic as it claimed its woebegone victim.

The Andrea Gail and her crew, alas, was no more.


	2. Chapter 2

**Flashback**...

"Hey, Sully..."

"Yeah?"

"Please don't go..." Debra, the recently-divorced single mother stood across from David in her kitchen. They were alone in the galley style kitchen, watching him finish his cup of coffee she'd brewed especially for him.

He tossed her a thoughtful look, then slowly a smile formed on his lips. "Hey, what's with you?" he jibed.

With her heart throbbing away a mile a minute, she came to him and patiently wormed her way into his lap. Wreathing her arms around his neck, she softly said with loving, pleading eyes, "I've got this real bad feeling about this trip. Like if you go, I'll never see you again. I can't shake it, Sully. You know me, not some silly, superstitious woman...but, this is different. It's like the sea's calling to me, saying it's about to boil over."

"What!" Sully cried, giving her a pointed, wild look. "Do you hear yourself, Babe. Y'sound off your nut. The sea boil over? That's crazy." Good-naturedly, he patted the side of her rump.

"I _am_ making sense. You-no wait, it wasn't you. It was Ethel. 'The Grand Banks in October is no joke.' Her words; not mine."

Scoffing, Sully replied, "Nobody's ever said they were. The only reason I'm willing to chance the Grand Banks is I need-no! _We_ need the money." He kissed her shoulder and came up grinning, seeing his soft soap wasn't making a dent in her reservations. "I'll be careful. I swear I will. It's gonna be a slammer, and we'll be rollin' in so much dough, we'll stuff it away in the mattress you just bought in Ames.

"I wish you'd take me seriously," Debra complained, pouting.

"I do take you seriously. You seriously want me to hang around here and be flat broke. Babe, I gotta go. I gotta make some real money, for a change. I promise, when I get back, you, little Dale and me are gonna celebrate. The biggest bash you've ever had. You deserve one, and more. So much more."

If this town only knew just how loveable and responsible David 'Sully' Sullivan truly was. All their belittling talk, their constantly putting him down, would cease.

"Sully..." Debra kissed his weather-toughened cheek and sighed. "You'd better come home to me, safe and sound." She hesitated, then kissed him on the lips, which he deepened.

Dragging his mouth away from hers so his lips were inches from hers, and sounding groggy, as if he'd just been carousing too long at The Crow's Nest, he said, "Lady, I love you so much. I don't deserve you. I'm glad you never turned me away."

"I never did because you're a good man."

"I made an enemy of Murph," Sully admitted with a long face.

Debra didn't share his opinion. "No, not you. Me. I made him my enemy 'cause I cheated on him."

"I tempted you."

"I gave into temptation. I'm not proud of what I did to my marriage, but Dale wasn't faithful either." She looked solemnly into Sully's roguish face, pinching his nose gently. "Promise me you won't pick fights with him aboard the boat."

Sully chuckled. "I promise, but you'd better make Murph promise the same thing. When he sees me, he sees red. When I see him, it makes me mad 'cause he should've treated you better."

Sternly, Debra said, "Don't fight with him on the boat, Sully."

"Oh, okay, okay." But he couldn't help having his doubts. If there were a contest between the two which was the more hotheaded, it'd be tie. Seeing what time it was, Sully downed the last of his coffee, set the cup down and squeezed Debra as tightly as he could until she begged for mercy.

When she laughed against the side of his neck, she murmured, "One last time...don't go. _Please_."

Sully breathed, "Wanna come with?"

"Oh, yeah. Sure. I'd make a terrible swordfish long-liner. And I can see, and hear it now. You and Murph with me in the middle in a constant tug-of-war. No thank you. I'll stay here, at home, being the reliable, caring mother I need to be."

"Yes...you...are..." he agreed and wrapped his arms around her, anchoring Debra in his possessive embrace.

She tangled her hands in his long, wild hair and planted kisses in the strands.

They stood up from the short-back kitchen chair as one and they ambled into the cozy living room. Sully took up his gear, tightly packed into his backpack and walked with Debra to the front door with his free arm around her.

"Sully...I..." The look she wore puzzled Sully, but he knew that if she had something to say, she'd say it. "I..."

"You?"

 _Not now. Not like this_...crossed her mind.

She smiled for a long time, focusing all of her attention on him. "Hurry home. I'll be thinking about you day and night until you come back. Safe, sound, my Sully."

He let the backpack drop, pulled her into his arms, squeezed her tightly, then picked her up to whirl around with her giggling in his powerful arms.

"We'll bring home a boatload of fish, set the market and be set for the winter," he promised.

"Just come back to me. That's all I ask."

Slinging his backpack over his right shoulder, he assured, "I will. You know I will."

"Bye, Sully. See ya."

"Yeah, Deb, see ya. Bye..."

She watched him take off, walking his 'tough guy' walk down the block until he disappeared around the corner, just a block away from the commercial docks. She'd nearly told him, nearly. Why hadn't she? He deserved to know, but she couldn't tell him. Telling him would've seemed rushed, and her news was too important, too life-altering. She'd tell him...when he got back. Of course she would.

But, when she thought what if he didn't make it back, she went running for the phone. Surely he'd arrived at The Crow's Nest by now. She dialed the number and when Ethel picked up, Debra asked, "Did Sully come in? I've gotta speak to him. It's really important."

"Sure. He just walked in." Her voice boomed in the bar where the crew of the Andrea Gale congregated. "Hey, Sully! Telephone!"

"Hey, Babe, what's up?" He stopped talking to her and yelled at the guys he was playing pool with, "Yo, it's still my shot! Nobody move those balls!" Speaking to Debra again, he said, "Yeah, Deb, what is it?"

"Sully, I should've told you before you left the house."

"Tell me what?"

"I'm...I'm..."

She sighed, and he snuck in again, "You?"

"I'm pregnant..."

"Deb!"

"I know. Crazy, huh."

Sully laughed. "No, it's not crazy, Babe! It's _wonderful_! A girl, or a boy?"

"Don't know that yet. It's too early. I'm only a few weeks."

"This is awesome! And know what else it is?"

"No. What?"

"We're getting married. Marry me."

"Marry you? Sully, do you mean it?"

"You know me. If I didn't, I wouldn't ask. I mean it like I mean you're the only woman for me, Deb."

"Sully, I will. I'll marry you."

"As soon as I get back, we do it."

"Yeah, Sully, we will."

"Hey, Babe, I gotta go. Billy's callin'. See ya. Love ya!"

"I love you too, Sully, so much. Be safe."

Sending her a kiss over the phone, he guaranteed, "Love you too. Don't worry. I _will_."


End file.
